


The Curse Of Our Ancestors

by Le_purple



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Ancestors (Homestuck), Arachnophobia, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Body Horror, Choking, Dialogue Light, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Drugs, Explosions, Fire, Gen, Ghosts, Gore, Gun Violence, Headaches & Migraines, Horror, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Monster(s), Mild Gore, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Monsters, Needles, Ocean, Other, Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma, Sea Monsters, Seadwelling Trolls (Homestuck), Sopor Slime, Spiders, Suffering, Tentacle Monsters, Trauma, Trippy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:14:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22961512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Le_purple/pseuds/Le_purple
Summary: Each of the twelve trolls have a frightening encounter.[Basically just an excuse to write senseless body horror]
Kudos: 21





	1. The Condesce

Feferi glided through the water, looking down at all of the colourful fish and vibrant corals that dotted the white sand and twirled between waving strands of green kelp. She had never been exploring this far away from her hive without Eridan tailing her, and it felt just great! She could take her time exploring dark caves, eat fish she had never even SEEN before, or just warm up near deep sea vents! The sea was her oyster!

A little further on there was a surprising contrast between the bright and lively reef and what awaited her, the sand clearing up until it was a plain stretch of land before dipping off into a deep cliff, the troll unable to see the bottom. Feferi floated over the dark abyss, black hair and colourful skirt waving idly with the current as she stared down. She was filled with an inexplicable curiosity, yet a dark dread that make her pink blood run cold, fins fluttering before pressing against her neck.

Bubbles escaped her gills as she let out a sigh, holding back her fear before swimming down into the entrance of the abyss. It was so strange, like a drain in which light sunk into and never shone again, everything completely drowned out by the shadows. Any plant life got darker and darker until the green was practically indistinguishable from the black, and Feferi could barely decipher which direction she swam in.

There was a pink glow around Feferi as her bio-luminescent spots began to shine, the freckles on her skin lighting up until she could at least see a few inches in front of her, making sure that she would swim into a wall. It was so strange, like she was just kicking her legs in water but had no direction to swim in, the only sign that she was even moving being the water on her face and the way her baby pink light seemed to turn the passing bubbles into her hue.

**GLUB**

Feferi stopped kicking, simply gliding through the water as she tried to focus.

**GLUB GLUB**

She could hear something. She could feel it in the water, washing around her and pushing and pulling her like it was a current.

**GLUB GLUB**

Sensing its direction, she swam quicker, curious to find the source of the noise that engulfed her. It was deep and bassy, and loud, thundering through her body and making her fuchsia heart beat palpitate. Feferi couldn't settle on what creature it could've been; some deep sea lusus? A giant bottom dweller? Maybe she could call up Eridan later to see if she can feed it to her mom.

**GLUB**

A giant magenta bubble rose up and burst against her, the rich colour flashing in her face before sparkling out with a loud 'pop'. Ears ringing slightly, Feferi looked down to the source of the bubble and found a dark pink light, similar to the hue emanating from her freckles. Even more curious than before, Feferi swam towards the light.

**BLUB GLUB**

Feferi diligently swam around the rising bubbles, watching them float up above her, colour flashing before fading out. The troll could even hear them pop as they reached the surface. Her pursuit of the light took her to the mouth of a large opening in the wall, bubbles rolling off the roof before ascending through the water past her. The cave was streaming with the magenta light, Feferi finally able to see what was around her.

The cave was lined with a black algae that she had never seen before, as well as seaweed that seemed to want to coil around her and tenaciously bind her to the cave. Making sure not to touch anything, Feferi swam through the cave, the magenta light up ahead rendering her vision only helpful for immediate threats.

**GLUB**

The light warped as another bubble emerged, spinning the troll as it whizzed past her, flinging her against the slimy walls, the tendrils of the dark seaweed threatening to trap her there forever. Not letting herself become confined to that fate Feferi used all the strength she could muster to tear herself away, the seaweed stretching before snapping as if they were strips of taut rubber. She looked at the back of her skirt and noticed that some of the dark algae had stained the fabrics, tinging the baby blue and green with its dark hue. The algae also found its way onto her arms and legs, the girl already feeling the slime irritate her skin.

Continuing her journey, Feferi swam away from the walls of the cave, the salt water warming up around her in a way that didn't help the irritation on her skin. It felt like something was trying to eat its way into her. The deeper she got, the more suffocating the water became, and it felt like her gills were going to burn off. She idly began scratching at her gills but pulled away in shock as she realised that some of the residue from the algae was on her webbed fingers, and that she had just scratched it into her gills.

The troll silently cursed before swimming off further into the cave, the walls becoming wider and the ceiling higher, the space enough for her to travel within the lumen of the tunnel without being at risk off colliding with more algae and seaweed.

**GLUB GLUB**

Feferi watched as bubbles rolled along the top of the cave, gliding across the slimy flora with ease. She could see the end of the tunnel ahead of her, and it looked like it lead to a vast cavern, filed with that shifting light, the dark hue starting the strain the trolls eyes.

**BLUB**

A bubble suddenly flung itself into the tunnel and bounced into Feferi, colliding with her before popping loudly. The noise sent her world spinning, the troll suddenly feeling dizzy and nauseous, ears ringing and pulsating, water gushing past them. As she tried to recuperate, a sudden current sucked her to the end of the tunnel with a force she had never experienced before, as if she was literally being sucked up like water through a straw.

The sea cavern she was pulled into was painted with the all encompassing magenta light and lined with that discussing black algae, and it completely dwarfed the girl in size, as if it were an ocean of its own. Feferi was suspended in the water, the current completely disappearing and just leaving her stranded. Idly scratching at her gills and arms again, Feferi looked around her and found that there were hundreds of holes in the walls just like the one she had swam through, the tunnels goring out the stone. Looking down, all she could see was the light, which seemed to intensify into a fuchsia barrier between Feferi and whatever lurked beneath it.

Spurred on by more morbid curiosity, Feferi swam down; or up, she couldn't tell what direction she was going in. Light warped around her as she swam, yet, she knew she wasn't moving with much speed, too preoccupied on the burning itching that had spread across all of her skin to swim with any urgency. Once more she found that her vision was limited, all the light making her head _pound_ and her stomach churn.

Finally, Feferi could make out a shape. It was black and ever shifting, the formless tendrils swaying and disappearing like smoke in air, as if it was some impure contaminant tainting the water, exactly like smoke in air. Each swaying tendril was huge, larger than even that of her lusus, and seemed to undulate with the same languid idleness. She swam up to one, reaching out to touch it with the same curiosity that had her pry her way down into the vast cavern.

As soon as her fingertips traced the huge tendril a burning pain shot from her hand all the way down to her shoulder, the scalding heat resonating across her rib cage, Feferi crying out in agony. The way the heat prickled her skin made her feel like thousands of strands of hair were trying to force their way out of her skin, the already aggravated state of her skin due to the black algae not helping her situation. Unable to stop herself, Feferi doubled over and began scratching-no- _clawing_ at her own flesh, her nails tearing through her skin with ease, pink streaks breaking and letting her blood run free and dissolve through the water. Her incessant digging at her skin didn't stop there, her claws travelling to her thighs, gills, fins and even her face, her mind and body completely engulfed by the urge to quell the itching.

It wasn't long until the pain had overwhelmed the initial itch, and her grey skin was marked with tender pink lines and lacerations gauged deep and bleeding profusely. Feferi let out a shuddering gasp when she realised what she had done, looking down at her cut skin with shocked eyes. Her eyes wandered back up to the formless shape and saw that it was completely still, every appendage unnaturally locked into place in a way that made what blood was left in her veins _chill_.

She couldn't move, paralysed in fear as all the tendrils swished around in the same direction, as if a colossal beast was turning, _turning to face her._

More bubbles rose through the water as it moved, tinted with that wretched glow. It wasn't long before Feferi could see the creature's face break through the darkness of what she realised was just its hair. Its skin was dark grey, almost the same black of its hair in its stygian tone, and was surrounded by an aura of magenta light, the same light that had filled up the vast cavern and shone through the tunnels. The thousands of eyes that were scattered on its skin were locked onto her, the irises shining with a hue all to familiar to her own, whereas the sclera was a deep orange. What Feferi found worst of all however was the hundreds of mouths that cut into every part of her skin, each one stretched into a hideously toothy grin, with rows and rows of sharp teeth; some of them were needle-like and thin, easy to pierce through prey; some of the were pinched into a point; and some of them were curved and misshapen, as if they were designed to mangle.

Regaining her senses, Feferi kicked herself into action and frantically attempted to swim away, but it was too late, the creature already catching her in its sights. With ease, it raised its hand, the appendage over twice the size of her, and it grabbed her. This time the feeling was like thousands of volts of electricity through her entire body, stretching vines shredding at her nerves and making her foam at the mouth.

She couldn't move. She couldn't fight. She could only watch as she was slowly brought closer to the eldritch creatures face.

The creature _laughed_ at her, bubbles rising up from the chattering mouths, the water vibrating and shaking around her. The maw above its chin opened wide, parting its plump lips and razor sharp teeth and letting its long, magenta tongue slither out of its mouth and dangle down almost to her collar bone. It extended its tongue until it was just a few inches from her face, threatening to subject Feferi to even more torment and unimaginable torture.

As if to taunt her, the beast drew its tongue back into its mouth and pursed its plump lips, leaning forwards like she was going to kiss Feferi. Instead, she lifted her other hand and held it out in front of her chin before a cascade of bubbles came flying out of her mouth, Feferi unable to do anything as hundreds of magenta bubbles barraged her and crashed into her, the noise almost as unbearable as the pain, every bone feeling as if it were on the brink of shattering.

Feferi opened her eyes in a cold sweat, breath shallow and fleeting. She found herself on the floor of her respite block next to her recupracoon, skin clammy with sopor slime and sweat. Quickly she put her hands to her face and then her arms, sighing in relief at the cool and uninflamed state of her skin, and the lack of pain inflicting her body. However, her joy was short lived, as in her sigh of relief a few bubbles escaped her gills, and she suddenly found her world getting smaller, breath quickening and nausea filling her gut.

She tossed herself over and held herself up by her hands, hair draping over her shoulders as she faced the floor, gagging and lurching uncontrollably with sharp tears pricking at her eyes. Every part of her body felt sick, head swimming and stomach churning like the tides. The popping of the bubbles rang through her skull like a chorus of bells, and Feferi found herself overwhelmed by the noise that was left resonating in her head.

Her mind was seared with the sickening hue, and as she collapsed onto the floor all Feferi could see was those undulating black tendrils, and the beasts infinite chattering grins and blinking eyes.


	2. Dualscar

Eridan sighed as he looked out of his window, rain hammering down on the glass as thunder rumbled in the dark sky. Everything was pitch black, as if the rain was the only thing outside of his hive, the darkness only broke by the frequent glow of lightning, but even then his view was limited to his island, as the ocean was a churning terrain of black.

He found himself lacking in entertainment, unable to go lusi hunting in such weather, and wearing out any conversation with his friends to the extent that he was blocked by Vriska (again). Wheeling his chair over to his bookshelves, Eridan began scanning the titles for any adequate reading material, cursing himself for not updating his catalogue of books as frequently as he should. Each one was well read yet practically immaculate, the only sign of use being the slight wave of the pages and the curled corners.

"Wwhen the fuck..." He muttered, noticing that some of his books were misplaced from their usual alphabetical order.

Well...it's not like he had anything better to do.

As the seadweller extracted a book from the shelf, there was a loud, visceral howl from outside, a pained scream. Eridan dropped the book to the floor in shock and froze up, listening out for any continuation of the chilling sound, which echoed until it was indistinct from an animals cry. It was distant, but close enough to make a cold panic wash through him.

He drew his gun from his strife specibus and looked out his window, thunder rumbling through his hive. There was a crack of lighting and suddenly Eridan could see a looming, black figure not far from his window, the silhouette twice his size with strange, thin protrusions. The seadweller didn't even think before shooting, a blast of bright blue light crashing through his wall and shattering the window.

With shaking hands Eridan held the rifle close to his body and waited for the smoke to clear, the rain pelting through the dust, cold wind whirling around his room. The rubble shifted, and the dark figure rose up, its jagged form unobscured by the night.

It was a seadweller, like Eridan, but he was much older, with a grand size, weather-worn face, and shredded fins. His dripping wet face and body was marked and split with countless scars and cuts, all along his bare, grey skin. Even worse, what wasn't slashed was pierced with needles and fishing hooks, jagged edges stained violet as they poked out from his flesh. Among the piercings was the most drastic protrusion; a harpoon lodged through his shoulder, jutting through the skin and bone.

"S-stay back!" Eridan yelled, shaking even more, craning his head up to even look at him. "I'll fuckin shoot again!"

The seadweller said nothing as he slowly began to trudge forwards, as if he was moving through silt and bound by chains. With every motion Eridan could see his skin stretch and warp around the hooks and needles, cuts ripping even further across the terrain of his skin until the thin threads of lacerations were pulled and lengthened painfully across his flesh.

Eridan backed up against the wall, fingers unable to curl around the trigger of his gun, sneer quivering into a fearful frown as the seadweller got closer and closer. He reeked of salt water and blood. The seadweller got close, close enough that the harpoon from his shoulder was directly pointed at his neck, the metal tip only a few inches away from digging into his throat.

There was the rumble of thunder as the storm drew closer and Eridan let out a peep, quickly clasping his hand over his mouth. The seatroll looked down at Eridan with its piercing violet eyes and flashed his teeth, white and crooked, the quick glow of lighting over his shoulder making the fishhooks and needles shine for a moment, as if they were the spines of a deep-sea monster.

He grabbed the rifle out of Eridan's hands and tossed it to the side, Eridan not even fighting against his strong grasp. His twisted into a smirk, the fishhook dangling from just below the corner of his lip rocking back and forth with the sudden movement, the two gashes that split his face warping among the other lacerations.

His slashed hand held Eridans neck to the wall and _squeezed_ , pins and bars digging into his throat. Eridan clawed at his wet flesh, digging his nails into the cuts and kicking at the seadwellers legs, panic rushing through him. Accompanied by a growl of thunder, the seatroll laughed a deep and menacing laugh, Eridan's efforts doing nothing as he weakened with his tightening grip. He managed to tear a barbed hook out of his tough skin, but it did nothing, and he found his claws slipping away as his vision swam.

Another glow of lighting swept through his respiteblock just before Eridan's world could grow dark, and he felt the hand around his neck evaporate, eyes snapping open just to see his room, rubble covering the floor and wind and rain whirling around from the hole in his wall.

Eridan shakily slid his back down the wall until he rested on the floor, just sitting there and looking out at the stormy beach with unfocused and afraid eyes, waiting for the seadwellers return.


	3. Grand Highblood

Slime dripped down his chin.  
Gamzee didn't wipe it up.

He waded through the time and colour flowing passively around him, brushing his hand along the side of his recupracoon before dipping it into the slime within. It was warm and swirled with hues of a hemospectrum that he had never even seen, beautiful and gentle. He sunk his arm in deeper and deeper until the slime creeped up to his elbow, his body relaxing so much it felt like he was going to slide into the slime entirely and stay there forever.

Gamzee slowly flexed his fingers under the thick goo, watching the colours ripple around. There were light, fluttery yellows and pinks, bleeding together with lime green and fuzzy oranges, all making their own sweet, sweet music in the room to float through the air and join the rest of the song.

The troll chuckled, soft bubbles escaping his lips and floating through the room like they always did, before he pulled his arm out of the slime and lazily licked it up, most of it wiping on his chin, numb face prickling softly with heat.

He dunked his arm back into the warm slime to listen to the colours once more, but found that they were silent, the only noise being the music that followed his mind. A little taken aback, Gamzee began stirring around, but found that his arm left a trail of deep, bitter purple, staining the delicate canvas of the sopor. It leaked out from his flesh like a dye, quickly tainting the slime with its putrid darkness as he could suddenly hear faint laughter around him, accompanying the music.

Removing his arm from the slime, Gamzee looked back in shock, finding that instead of slime, his arm dripped with deep purple, the reek of blood filling his respiteblock. The boy tried to fling it off, but he found that no matter how much he wiped it there would always be more blood, Gamzee slowly becoming coated with his own hue. He pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around his arm in an attempt to bandage it, but it quickly seeped through and coated the garment, soaking it with blood as the laughing got louder.

"Wh-what's so funny?" He stammered, the slur and drawl on his voice edging out as he grew more panicked.

Looking back at his recupracoon he found that the sickly purple had spread even to the edges, the beautiful cacophony of hue toned out, drowned out by his blood. He planted his hands back into the liquid, trying to scoop some up, but found that it just trickled through his already soaked fingers, nothing there but that disgusting colour. As he let it run off of his fingers into the recupracoon, he saw bubbles rise to the surface, quickly foaming up until it looked like a boiling pot.

Gamzee stumbled back in fear and surprise, watching the bubbles rise up and grow until it was a foaming mass almost at ceiling height, the amorphous terror starting to gain shape. It was towering, with thick legs bigger than Gamzee leading up into a strong-framed torso and two wrecking balls of arms, fists twice the size of his skull. The head of the creature was shrouded by an unruly mane, and Gamzee noticed that the once monotonous purple had darkened and lightened in certain spots, until its face was decorated with hideous markings like a subjuggulators paint, jagged and menacing.

What little music that remained was warped into the manic laughter, screams emerging like boils on a plague victim until Gamzee's head rung. The hulking beast stepped out of his recupracoon and without hesitation grabbed Gamzee like he was a plaything, the blood covering his arm merging with the creature as he struggled and kicked, unable to find the strength to do anything but give in.

It drew its face close, its whirling visage twisted into a grin as its jaws parted, the stench of death making Gamzee screw up his eyes and try to face away, a deep distorted laughter rumbling throughout the entirety of what could be called its body. The disgusting ichor washed into the roll boy without warning, Gamzee falling to his cold floor as the behemoth disintegrated before his eyes.

Suddenly as he tried to get to his feet, he stumbled, entire body flooded with a jarring, seizing pain. His body warped, bones suddenly creaking under his own vast weight before burning from the marrow outwards as he shrunk, as if he was in a fun house of mirrors with that were playing a sick game with his anatomy, stretching and pulling him like taffy.  
Skin stretched taut over muscle and bone before bulbous, unbalanced limbs joined it, the laughter and screaming just melting together into nauseating static, body swirling around and around and around like he was on a carousel, the troll clinging to the cold, wet floor for dear life, lest he be tossed over into the abyss.

Gamzee squeezed his eyes shut and vomited, acid barrelling out of his throat and splattering on the floor.

The fuzziness of the wold sharpened into pin-point blades and suddenly everything was a stark, focused black and white, with Gamzee's retching body the only thing left in the universe as an ocean of neon forced its way out of him through his throat.


	4. Expatriate Darkleer

Equius sauntered through his hive, arms full of metal scraps to be taken to his tinkerblock and reused to make new robots, which he would then, punch back into scraps. He dumped it onto the gradually growing heap in his tinkerblock and began to make his way back to his respiteblock. Usually he would have Aurthour do the cleaning up, but he knew the old boy wasn't nearly as strong as him, and the job would be done much quicker is the pieces weren't only picked up one-by-one.

On the way back to from respiteblock something caught Equius' attention.

It was a drop of fuchsia blood, little more than a speck, the troll almost mistaking it for a trick of the light if it wasn't from the faint odour emanating from that spot. He crouched down and wiped over it with his thumb finding that it was cold and still fresh, but there was so little that it practically disappeared as soon as it was smeared onto the pad of his thumb. Equius wiped his thumb on his shorts, trying to wipe it away with a slight grimace.

He sniffed the air but the odour still persisted, the corridor filled with the rusty salt smell which somehow grew stronger. He stood up to continue moving the scraps, but noticed another few drops further down the hallway, far away enough that he could barely make it out.

Completely enamoured with the strange occurrence, Equius moved over to find a few more dabs of blood, violet, still minute in quantity but noticeably more than the fuchsia, about a full drop. Equius grew more confused, as the blood could not be tracked down to a single injured troll that by some strange happenstance found themselves in his hive, as the liquid was clearly from different hues. The colour itself was very peculiar, the noble blood of a seadweller having no place in the landwellers hive.

Equius next found himself searching for the next appearance of blood, following the faint but very noticeable smell in the air, spurred on by a dark curiosity. Where could it come from? Was it planted there on purpose?

Just around the corridors corner he found a small smear of purple, clearly from a highblood of the most noble caste. Equius rubbed his his hand over his face, trying to wipe off the sweat that began to build on his skin at the sight of such a regal landwellers spilled hue.  
He would have to come back for it at another time.

He began to walk faster, eyes open wide as he came across his own colour, the full droplets splattered haphazardly on his floor. There was a moment where he just watched it, a cold feeling spreading from his fingertips to his stomach. It was surreal, dizzying.

Shaking his head, Equius charged down the other end of the hallway, focused. He stepped past the splotches of cerulean and teal, and ignored the single drop of jade, trying to block out that hideous smell that only grew more and more pungent and wretched as he drew closer and closer, the faint iron aroma morphing into the reek of rust and death, like a slaughterhouse. He bit his lip as he dodged a pool of olive, finding that he could barely take a step without wading through the coalescing hues. Equius grimaced and audibly retched, the sensation of lukewarm blood seeping into his shoes against the putrid reek of death almost unbearable.

Reaching the end of the corridor, Equius found himself confronted with a door, blood slowly seeping out from underneath. Equius rested his ear against the door, focusing and trying to put aside the abhorrent odour to hear a quiet rasping, like the heaving of ancient lungs.

There was a crash as Equius thrust the door off of it's hinges, before a torrent of blood cascaded out of the room like a tidal wave of rot, burgundy, bronze and gold gushing around his knees and sloshing down the hallway, staining it with the smell. The smell was even worse than he had ever anticipated, the air raw and heavy with a festering, acrid scent. Equius clasped his nose and mouth in his hands, trying to block out the smell of blood and only half succeeding.

He trudged through the disgusting mixture, eyes squinted as he peered through the dark room to figure out what was happening.

There was a shifting, hulking shape in the room, a few feet taller than Equius. It was a shambling figure with a strong frame, like a desecrated nobleman, with broad shoulders and skin stretched over dilapidated muscle. It had long, thinned hair and hollow eyes, which gushed the filthy blood, spewing more of it all over itself. All over the figures body were arrows, long and thin and splintering, every inch impaled with the soaked wood. The entire hemospectrum cascaded from its silhouette, even with streaks of a mutant red which tainted and spread all where it pooled.

Equius could only stand there in shock as he soaked in the figures gruesome form, watching it tremble towards him, endless streams of burgundy flooding over him as if he were standing under a waterfall of blood.

It reached out, outstretched arm spiked with a dozen arrows protruding from his flesh. Despite its painful appearance, it looked mournful, full of despair and regret, like every moment was its plea for forgiveness. Equius was lost for a second, not taking in the reek of death or able to feel the blood around his feet, just looking at that shambling, pitiful creature with an indescribable feeling in his gut.

It gasped and Equius was thrust back into reality, sweat rolling down his skin and body shaking in fear. He slipped back and fell into the burgundy blood, every part of him soaked in it and its disgusting stench. It splashed around him and covered his hair, face and clothes, and he no choice to look up at the figure, more blood sloshing from its body and staining-tainting the word around it.

He crawled through the blood like a panicked animal until he could stumble to his feet, clothes heavy and reeking and heart pulsing frantically in his chest, just trying to get away from that figure and all the blood, just trying to get away from everything.


	5. Mindfang

Vriska watched the latest losers from her FLARP campaign writhe in her lusi's web, no longer under her control and making a futile attempt to escape before she took them as her meal. It was a little gruesome, but its not like she had anything better to do, the sun coming up in just a few hours anyway. They squirmed and tried to tear through their binds with their claws, but the webs slowly built up around them until it smothered their faces and sealed them away forever until they could barely even squirm anymore.

As she grew bored, her eyes wandered and she caught sight of a small, blue critter crawling along the windowsill. Looking closer, Vriska realised that it was a spider, no bigger then a hatchling.

"Heeeeeeeey little guy~" She purred, resting her chin on the stone and intently watching it crawl around. "Haven't seen anything like you before."

She put her finger next to the tiny arachnid and it immediately scuttled onto her grey digit, crawling around as she twisted and swirled her finger before she let it move to her other hand. Despite its small size, Vriska could feel every pointed leg stick into her skin with every step, the sensation of it crawling around almost painful for the troll. Vriska rested her finger on the windowsill and let the tiny spider crawl off and scuttle away, probably to build a web in some unassuming corner of her respiteblock.

The troll suddenly felt a throbbing behind her right eye, like some insect somehow got trapped in her skull and was trying to scratch her eye out from the inside out to escape. Her vision blurred and Vriska held her head in her hand, wincing. The stinging only _barely_ subsided and she pulled her hands away, eyes not sure whether the room was too dark or too light.

Vriska felt an itch travel aimlessly around her hand, and she found that there was that tiny blue spider again. Looking back at the windowsill, she found that it was bare.

Maybe she imagined letting it crawl off?

As she looked back at her hands as she brought them to the windowsill, Vriska froze up and in panic, finding them covered in at least a dozen of those tiny, blue spiders, seemingly bursting out of nowhere. They scuttled around frantically, their pointed legs leaving a fuzzy feeling all over her skin which numbed at their touch. She shook and scratched at her hands but found that they wouldn't come off no matter what she did, the numbers doubling as her vision blurred into another head-splitting migraine.

The second bout was worse, so much worse, Vriska's ears beginning to ring and her vision swimming. She couldn't move, something in her head shutting down control of her body and lending it to another creature entirely. She panicked and tried to fight against whatever had clutched her nervous system, muscles seizing up, all the while hundreds of spiders scaled her body, head ringing and pounding with a stabbing pain.

Through her blurred sight, Vriska noticed a figure emerge from some dark corner of her room, shambling towards her with a wicked yellow grin. It was gaunt, pirate garb hanging loosely over its skeleton, the troll sure that it only had one arm as the sleeve for the other side hung empty. Its single bloodshot eye was locked on Vriska, its other eye missing from its skull, in its place hundreds of spiders escaping from the socket and crawling around in a frenzy over its pinched cheeks, even scuttling over its remaining eye which seemed to not react.

Vriska could hear the shuffling of the wet, leather boots on its feet and she stumbled back until her hip bumped against the windowsill, stopping her from moving any further. For every step it took closer Vriska could feel her brain sting and ache, rattling with agony. She tried to lift her hands but found that they were webbed to her sides, tearing her hands away only delaying the inevitable as the spiders spun more thick, sticky webs around her, slowly binding her up.

They crawled along her neck and in and out of her ears, scaling her body until the web covered her from her ankles to her nose, the fibres spinning over her mouth and gagging her. Vriska squirmed and tried to escape, but found that the web was built up too thick, and she only succeeded in hopping a few inches away from the creature before falling over onto her back, swimming vision blacking out as the webs grew to cover her eyes, the figure looming over her with that disgusting grin still on its face.

Vriska thrashed, bit and screamed, trying anything she could, fighting as hard as she could, before suddenly the pain in her head settled into fatigue, and she found that her body grew heavy and sluggish. Her screams drawled out into hums until even breathing felt tasking, the lull of sleep taking over her mind until she was at the mercy of the monster.


	6. Redglare

Terezi took another idle bite of her chalk before taking it back to her wall, looking it over for a few seconds before deciding to continue shading the green with the purple. She had to make the executioners block perfect for her next trial. After working down the chalk to a nub she quickly popped it in her mouth before standing up, heading over to the other side of her room to grab a fresh box.

As she turned around, Terezi noticed something. A new noose hung from her ceiling, Earl Teatingle caught in its grasp as it loosely cinched around his neck. The rope was seemingly connected to nothing, snaking up to the ceiling and disappearing but still tethered by some unknown force.

"I see you're already anticipating the outcome of your trial!" Terezi cackled, pulling the scalemate out of the noose and tucking it under her arm with a squeak. She moved to grab another box of chalk but fell to the floor, something quickly hooking over her ankle and tripping her up. It was another noose, and as Terezi curled over to remove it a blinding light flashed in her eyes, and a burning smell suddenly stung her nose.

This drove Terezi into action, the girl yanking the noose off and whipping up, looking around to find out what was happening. It was like her hive had been oh so suddenly struck by lightning, scorch marks blackening the walls, and blazing fire whirling around the room. Everything was so bright, the flames spreading like her hive was doused in gasoline and a glowing red light cutting through the black of the smoke. It was a blinding, neon red that burned her eyes and dizzied her mind, disorientating her even more than the smoke and fire ever could. Her respiteblock was barely recognisable, stained with red and blackened like she was in a nightmare, nooses dripping from the ceiling and snaking across walls around her, threatening to snatch her away.

Terezi glanced up and saw it. It stood behind the fire, and was slender with sharp, pointed features, but not much taller than her, suspended off the floor by a noose around its slender neck. It was puppeteered by few of the many nooses in the room, coiling around its arms, wrists, shoulders, waist and whatever else they could until its limp body was strangled by rope. It smiled with dozens of jagged and dagger-like teeth, grinning manically wide, unmoving, unblinking. It's eyes were as fiery as the room Terezi was trapped in, and the troll was unable to look directly at its face because of the unwavering red glare, from the sclera to the iris, with glowing pupils. The clothes on its body were scorched, shiny bright red and teal charred black, and it held a long, pointed cane, looking more like a rapier than anything to help it walk, long fingers coiled around the white head, not concealing the shimmering red jewels that glowed with matching intensity to her eyes.

The troll girl looked around for an escape, but found that the fire in her room was quickly closing in, sure to incinerate her if the smoke didn't suffocate her beforehand. Through the thick flame Terezi managed to spot something: her window. Without thinking she charged, hoping to smash through it and free herself before the fire took her, but was pulled back, nooses looping around her and dragging her back before she could leap past the fire, cinching tightly around whatever part they could as they pulled her up.

Her own cane dropped to the floor, vanishing under a sweeping lick of fire that now coiled around her ankles like snakes, their hot bites filling her veins with venom. Terezi used all the strength she had to fight against the bonds, trying to claw at the rope around her neck just to get a little air as the figure watched her through the fire waiting for her to succumb. Her vision swam and narrowed, smoke burning the back of her throat and tainting the little air that managed to squeeze past the hold of the nooses, legs kicking weakly.

As the final breath in her lungs left to join the smoke and heat, Terezi fell limp, the searing brightness of the room fading out until only the glow of the figures red eyes stared through the encroaching darkness before flickering out.


End file.
